Breakfast with Ted Cruz

CLEVELAND, OHIO—As Thursday dawned, the Tailgunner was still a cussed soul and still refusing to back down and still all those things he was on the stage the night before. He had a breakfast meeting with the Texas delegation in a Marriott downtown, and he stood in even as derision came from the most loyal supporters—and some of the very few political friends—that he has.

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"What does it say," Cruz told them, "when you stand up and say, 'Vote your conscience,' and rabid supporters of our nominee begin screaming, 'What a horrible thing to say!' [Ed. Note: That was a very polite translation of what the folks in the New York delegation were screaming at him.] If we can't make the case to the American people that voting for our party's nominee is consistent with voting your conscience, is consistent with defending freedom and defending the Constitution, then we are not going to win and we would not deserve to win. That's how you win elections."

He would not say if he would vote for the party's nominee. ("I will tell you, I'm not voting for Hillary.") He told them that, after He, Trump had insulted Heidi Cruz, and tried to make Rafael Cruz an accessory before the fact in the murder of John F. Kennedy, that it had become personal. He told the Texans, he had no intention of coming to the Trump campaign, hat in hand, like "a servile puppy dog." He resisted to the last the notion that an extraordinarily non-binding pledge—which, later, Trump campaign director Paul Manafort groaningly tried to make equivalent to the Constitution—bound him to a guy who glibly connected his father to Lee Harvey Oswald.

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In his answer to the last question, from a Hispanic woman who wanted to know whether, as a man of his word, he should have honored the pledge. "I have to say that it is not about Donald Trump. It is not about Ted Cruz, or Heidi Cruz, or Rafael Cruz. It is about the United States of America." A "U-S-A" chant broke out.

"Ma'am," Cruz answered, "I agree with you emphatically. It is about the United States. Every day in the Senate, I have spent every waking moment fighting for this country, fighting for you, fighting to honor the promises I made. By the way, there's a reason why others don't—because of the reaction in Washington when you get screamed and hollered down when you honor your commitments. That's what I did in my speech last night.

He stood in even as derision came from the most loyal supporters—and some of the very few political friends—that he has.

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"Last night, what I laid out was not a speech that was focused on me. Last night was a speech that was focused entirely on the United States of America, on a path forward. Our country is on the edge of precipice. We are on the verge of losing the greatest country in the history of the earth and my soul cries at where this country is, at what we're doing to the freedom of our kids and grandkids. And what I said was the only path to saving this country. And it is not just blindly chanting a name and yelling down dissenters. That is not the way. I believe in free speech.

"By the way, can anyone imagine our nominee standing in front of voters answering questions like this? I'm going to answer the questions even from the fellas who yell and scream because, you know why? Because you have a right under the First Amendment to your opinions. If we don't honor freedom and if we don't honor the Constitution, if we can't convince the American people that our candidate can be trusted to defend the Constitution, then we will lose and we will deserve to lose. My speech last night was entirely about this country and how we save this country, and I will continue to tell the truth whether or not it is politically helpful or politically convenient. I wasn't elected to do the convenient thing. I was elected to do the right thing, each and every day."

I wish he would stop this stubborn defense of principle and this stubborn attachment he has to his own independence, because his politics are still hopelessly retrograde, and his interpretation of American political history still leaves you stranded about half-past the Articles of Confederation, and I don't want to admire him as much as I do right now.

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